Chapter 149

Plant Poop

It was still several days before Peter managed to transform as well. Remus said it was because he was frightened, and he was probably right. It would be just like Peter to turn into a rat and not be able to figure out how to change back, or to get stuck in some sort of half human - half rat hybrid monstrosity and expose them all because he had to go to the hospital wing to get it fixed.

He was rather content to say human, thanks. But he'd come this far, and it was dangerous to wait and not take that last step, besides who didn't think it was cool to be able to change into an animal at will, even if it was just a rat.

James had been ecstatic when he'd come back. Sirius had knocked him off his feet before he even walked through the door. It took the stag a bit of time to put two and two together, but when he did he almost leaped for joy, or Peter thought he would have if Sirius hadn't been on top of him at the time.

Sirius had to explain the whole theory thing to both Remus and James, Remus thought it sounded a little iffy, and James was with Peter in that it was too simple, but they had the proof right in front of them so they couldn't really argue over it.

On Sirius' part, he seemed content to run around the room as a dog, and the room complied, it had even added bowls of water and dog food at one point, Sirius wasn't amused.

James and Peter still tried to change, but Peter was afraid and James was too distracted by the upcoming game so it was slow going for a while.

It was a testament to how distracted the captain really was that Peter managed to change before him, despite him being far better a wizard than the chubby little marauder.

It was a full three days before Peter managed it, and, like Sirius, he hadn't even noticed at first. James had just come back from practice, looking exhausted and inquired as to where he was, Sirius and Remus had thought he'd been around but couldn't find him. He'd been confused, of course, he was on one of bean bag chairs, very visible, but when he opened his eyes he realized he'd sunk into the chair, so small that he couldn't be seen between the folds of the chair. He also couldn't get out and he was forced to simply squeak a lot until one of them found him. Remus had let him ride on his shoulder until he could put him in a safer spot for him to change back. James was a little upset, he tried to not be jealous, but they all had to reassure him that it was only because of the upcoming quidditch game that he'd changed last.

Peter was so relieved it was over he wanted to cry, did even one time he forayed out of the Room of Requirement to get some food for everyone. No more dangerous, illegal spells, no more foul, nearly poisonous, potions. The only thing he needed to worry about was classwork now and compared to the animagi junk that was a piece of cake. He didn't even need to stay in the room of requirement anymore, now that everything they were working on was actually legal.

Sirius and Remus were sticking around until the very end, but that night Peter went back to the dorm and slept on a real bed for the first time in two months. Being alone gave him a chance to get ahold of some of his contacts too, he didn't tell them what exactly Sirius and James were up to, though they wanted to know, but he was able to give them some new information.

Peter slept soundly that night and in the morning it was strange to be in his own dorm again, nice but strange. Not only was he alone, but he'd actually had the chance to sleep in. That never happened, either Sirius would be noisy or Remus would grumpily force him out of bed. He was almost late for herbology even. It was nice, to just be able to do things his way and not worry about others around him, even if it meant running across the grounds at breakneck speed.

Professor Sprout had already started by the time he got there, but she didn't seem to notice his tardiness.

"What're you late for?" James whispered, ignoring her safety lecture.

"Slept in," Peter whispered back and James laughed.

"Figures," James said handing him a spade. "I think we're doing self-fertilizing shrubs again."

"Of course we are, we've only been doing them for like a month and a half at this point," Remus added from where he and Sirius had partnered up at the next table over. James and Sirius were no longer allowed to work together in most their classes but they seemed to be able to get into even more trouble than usual when surrounded by dangerous and deadly plants. Peter was under the impression Professor Sprout might cry if they decided to continue into NEWT level classes.

"What's the point, they practically take care of themselves," James complained.

"Hense the self-fertilizing part," Sirius agreed.

Professor Sprout shushed them, and they complied, or at least Peter and James did, he could still hear Sirius and Remus whispering to each other. Working mostly in silence, except for the occasional cry of disgust when the plant pooped on someone, there was a lot of time for one's mind to wander. The job itself was mostly busy work; cleaning out the planting bowl, watering, feeding, nothing particularly different this time. Peter used the time to plan his day. It was Friday so homework could wait, and he was not going back in the Room of Requirement to help James. He could use his new powers to sneak somewhere, maybe he could swipe some stuff from Honeyduke's cellar or sneak into McGonagall's office to see if she had an answer sheet for a test or something.

Something James wouldn't let him do when he was around.

There were multiple loud swear words coming from Sirius and Remus' table and Peter jumped looking around as though he'd been caught already.

Instead of his herbology partner, he saw a large stag getting tangled in the plants looking quite frightened.

Sirius burst out laughing, Remus chuckling alongside him.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here!" Professor Sprout huffed as she attempted to wrestle the plants off the stag's antlers.

"Sorry Professor, Sirius put a potion in his drink at breakfast, but we expected it to happen a lot faster than this." Remus improvized, surprising Peter with how fast he could come up with the story.

"Detention, Black. Pettigrew, would you please lead Potter to the hospital wing." Se asked still trying to untangle the very messy plant from the now irritated stag. Sirius was still laughing too hard to breath, irritating the stag more.

Peter, Remus, and a few other students, not including Evans who was trying to concentrate on her work even with all the distraction, pulled James free of the plant mass, but it was too late for the poor stag. He was now covered head to hoof in weird plant fickle matter.

The only thing that stopped James from running straight out the door in his embarrassment was the doorknob. Sirius had to lower himself to the floor to prevent from falling over in his laughter.

"And you can go to see your head of house, Black." Professor Sprout, also covered in plant poop and looking very angry, said just as Peter opened the door. "Lupin you may need to drag him."

"It'll be my pleasure," Remus said, giggling.

"Just get out of my class."

It wasn't until they were out of sight from the greenhouses completely that James changed back, he'd headed in the direction of the forbidden forest rather than up to the castle so they were no longer following Sirius and Remus. Even their laughter was beginning to fade now.

James, however, was irate.

He said nothing as he threw his cloak to the ground, all covered in dark brown goo. His face was as red as could be, but at least the clothes he wore underneath the cloak were clean.

"Humiliating." He muttered as he dug his wand out of his cloak pocket and nonverbally used a cleaning spell on it. Peter still thought it should be washed, and James seemed to agree as instead of putting it back on he pointed his wand at it. His face screwed up in anger.

"Incendio!" he yelled just for the satisfaction of yelling as he didn't need to say the spell out loud.

The cloak burst into flames and James stormed back, not caring if the fire spread to the trees around and burnt down half the forest.

Peter chose to put out the fire behind his back before following.

"But at least you did it," he tried to cheer him up a little.

"Shut up, Wormtail."

Peter shut up.

A/N) Well, they've all managed to become animagi. ^_^ Excite! What do you guys think? Did I do a good job portraying their struggles? Successes? The risks involved with underage illegal magic? Let me know. You're criticisms help me improve as a writer. So long as their constructive at least.